The present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating purchasing of duty-free items from multiple merchants over a communications network.
Duty-free shops are retail outlets that are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, provided that the goods are sold to travelers who will take them out of the country. Typically, duty-free shops are located in the international zone of international airports, sea ports, and train stations. Goods can be also bought duty-free on board some airplanes and passenger ships.
The duty-free market was worth US $32.6 billion from airport sales alone in 2011, and is growing by about 10% per year. However, duty-free shopping has yet to realize its full potential. Travelers are faced with a bewildering array of choices, with total retail stores ranging between 50 and 500 in major international airports. Furthermore, the time available for travelers to shop is, by definition, limited by the time remaining until departure and this time can be further reduced by idle time taken up by waiting in queues for immigration, security and check-in. Average wait time in these queues is about an hour.
It would be desirable to provide a means by which travelers can have increased time available for duty free shopping.